Weissport adopts budget with no real estate tax hike

December 08, 2004|By Lisa Scheerer Special to The Morning Call - Freelance

Weissport Borough Council adopted a 2005 budget that does not increase the property tax rate.

No comments were made on the $96,609 budget at a public hearing Monday, and no borough residents inspected the budget as allowed by state law.

Weissport's general tax rate is 2.77 mills, plus a 0.166 mill for street lighting for a total rate of 2.936 mills.

That means the owner of a property with a $33,000 tax assessment pays $96.88 a year in municipal property tax.

Council also accepted confirmation of a $3,200 flood protection grant from the state Department of Environmental Protection. The grant will reimburse the borough 65 percent of the costs of work on its half-mile levy along the Lehigh River.

"We have to maintain the levy all year ourselves," council President Dennis Moser said. "However, this grant will help with the more major construction."

The grant will be used to repair inlet pipes in the two ponding areas around the levy. Without the work, Moser said, the levy would rapidly deteriorate.

The steel inlet pipes are the originals, which have held since the levy was built in 1956 after a major flood. Weissport officials would like to replace the steel with concrete.

Moser said work will begin in spring and take about a day. The cost does not exceed $5,000, so the contract does not have to be bid out, he said.

The levy is inspected annually by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency or U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

If work on the levy is not complete by June 30, the borough will not be reimbursed.